The Slow Learner— Changing His View of Math

Many school systems have, without fanfare, been creating attractive and effective opportu-nities by which slow learners can get somewhere in mathematics. These demonstrate, among other things, that the day of the locally-made curriculum is by no means over. FEAR of mathematics and a distaste for any computation or for the kind of analytical thinking that typifies mathematics-these qualities characterize the slow learner in mathematics. This fear and distaste are born most frequently of some early fuzzy under-standing or lack of understanding and are nurtured in succeed-ing years by the frustration of attempting to build new under-standings on a nonexistent foundation. The student becomes, in consequence, a slow learner in mathe-matics or, more properly, a nonlearner beyond a certain level o